| Abstract: |
Both the Hoabinhian and the Neolithic series from Gua Cha, West Malaysia, diverge from recorded samples of recent Southeast Asians in their dental morphology. Their closest affinities instead lie with the prehistoric Jomon of Japan and various Pacific populations. Extended statistical analysis suggests that the Neolithic and earlier inhabitants of West Malaysia shared an ancient common ancestry with the Jomon on the one hand, and with populations in a ring around the Indian Ocean on the other hand. These groups exhibit variations on a widespread, ancestral dental morphology which evidently persisted in at least some parts of West Malaysia until Neolithic times. Any substantial immigration into the Malay Peninsula, associated with establishing the gene pool of any "Orang Asli" Aboriginal group or the Malays, would either have occurred far away from Gua Cha or would have postdated the Neolithic.
|
